The road for sustainable fashion has been tough. On one side, you have the fashion industry whose job it is to produce and sell goods on a 6-8 week cycle. On the other side, you have environmentalists who are concerned about how these products are produced and discarded.

In the past, designers have been approached with eco-fabrics, but the plain truth is that the textiles just didn’t look or feel so good. I used to think that everyone should just SUCK IT UP because using eco-fabrics is the “right thing” to do! But actually no one wants to wear (or spend money on) an itchy t-shirt or a dress that feels rough on your skin (not even me). Some designers tried to integrate eco-fabrics into their collections, but often they would just not sell in stores. So, as you can imagine, it was kind of a non-starter for a while…

It takes quite a special person to bring these two sides to the table. It takes an even MORE INCREDIBLE person to get them inspired and excited to work together. Livia Firth of Eco-Age is that person. Livia is warm, kind, glamorous, intelligent, and fun to be around. She is passionate about ethics and sustainability in fashion and knows that in order for better practices to take hold, eco-fabrics have to be competitive in look, feel, convenience, and price. To that end, Livia spearheads Eco-Age’s Green Carpet Challenge (GCC) to get luxury eco-fabrics onto the world’s most high profile red carpet events (including the Oscars, Met Ball, and Cannes). Additionally, under Livia’s leadership, Eco-Age has launched fantastic collaborations like Gucci’s zero deforestation certified leather handbags, Chopard’s fair-mined gold high jewelry collections, and designer collaborations with peeps like Tom Ford, Christopher Bailey, and Stella McCartney (just to name a few!) Oh, and also, Livia was one of the main forces behind Eco-Age’s short film, Handprint, which aims to shed light on the ethical and social issues in the fashion supply chain (starring moi!) So, as you can see, she is kind of a powerhouse/Super Woman 😉

Despite having a thousand things on her plate at once, Livia has been so incredibly supportive of Impatient Foodie and I could not be more grateful. She was one of the first people I reached out to asking for one personal recipe for our “Friends” section. She responded by emailing, tweeting, and Instagramming me multiple recipes over several weeks, tagging Impatient Foodie in pictures, and also putting me in touch with her fashion friends who she thought would be good Impatient Foodie collaborators. She did all of this when I asked her for just ONE recipe – that’s the kind of wonderful person she is!

So, this calamari dish is Livia’s recipe. I had never tried to cook calamari before and was sort of nervous, but OMG it’s so fast and easy! And listen guys, I never use the “E” (easy) and “F” (fast) words unless it is REALLY merited… Trust me, this recipe deserves it. Grazie Livia!

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About Elettra

Elettra Wiedemann is the founder of Impatient Foodie, a food site that navigates her desire to marry Slow Food ideals with the realities of fast paced, urban life. Within just a few months of launch in summer of 2014, Impatient Foodie was featured in numerous publications including Vogue, The New York Post, The Daily Mail (UK) Elle US, Elle China, Yahoo Food, Yahoo News, Madame Figaro, and Racked, ManRepeller, and Food & Wine Magazine.